Svensson, Johanna

Abstract [en]

Previous research in the field of language and gender in education has shown that gender bias exists in classroom interaction. This essay will investigate if these findings will also hold true for classroom interaction in elementary schools in Stockholm, Sweden. The focus for this study will be on teacher questions and allocation of turns. After 7.2 hours (or 8 lessons) of observation in a 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classroom, the results showed that, in contrast to previous research, the teachers allocated a fair share of turns between the sexes, and aimed a rather even number of total questions at boys and girls respectively. However, an important difference between the sexes was found when it came to what kinds of questions that were aimed at boys and girls respectively. The boys proved to receive more open-ended questions and the girls proved to receive more yes/no questions, which agrees with previous research. All in all, the results from this study suggest that the teachers succeed in some aspects to achieve similar treatment of boys and girls, but have not yet fully reached the ultimate goal: a classroom totally free from gender bias.